The Tides Inn, Chesapeake Bay, Virginia: My Favorite Family Resorts

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Wendy Perrin's family vacation idea in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, is an escape to Southern easy living. Wendy Perrin is sharing her family's personal picks for the best family-friendly resorts, and today the spotlight is on the The Tides Inn, a beautiful country inn and marina.

Everybody has his or her ideal view. For some it’s turquoise ocean, for others it’s snow-capped mountains. For me it’s the view from The Tides Inn in Irvington, Virginia. This country inn and marina sit on a small, picturesque Chesapeake Bay harbor, dotted with sailboats and lined with green woods half hiding pretty white houses, in a lesser-known pocket of Virginia that is brimming with history yet somehow empty of tourists. Last August—a crowded, pricey time for virtually every family resort on the Eastern Seaboard—the Inn and its environs were, to my surprise and delight, neither crowded nor overpriced nor uncomfortably hot. The resort feels far away from the rest of the world. And, thanks to its homey, easygoing atmosphere and warm staff, some of whom have worked there for decades, it also felt like coming back to a childhood vacation home. I was there with three generations of my family, all of different ages and with different interests, and every single one of us longs to go back. Here’s why:

Why The Tides Inn made my list: Because it’s a total escape from the rat race that combines an enchanting setting with an easy Southern pace of life and a variety of enriching family-friendly activities.

A bit about this list: In a 12-part series, I’m sharing my personal picks for best kid-friendly resorts. Now, every family is different and, mercifully, my children have not hit the teen years yet, so the places I’ve chosen won’t suit everyone, but they’re the ones that have worked best for me (exhausted working mom), my husband (exhausted stay-at-home dad), and our kids (hyperkinetic eight- and nine-year-old boys). Together the four of us made a list of the 30-or-so resorts we’ve been to as a family, and then we deliberated, debated, and drilled down until we ended up with our top 12. I’m revealing them here, in alphabetical order, and because a child’s perspective is crucial, my nine-year-old, Charlie, is weighing in with his own reviews too. Charlie and I have rated each property as well on a scale of 0 to 5 smiles.

Tides Inn, Virginia

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What I liked most:** How easy it was to do what we wanted, when we wanted, with no waits, hassles, paperwork, fees, or reservations necessary. In August! That’s how you know you’ve really escaped the rat race. We could go to the marina and take out a kayak with no advance notice, play golf on the Par 3 course at any time, use the bikes to explore the area whenever we felt like it, make a dinner reservation for any hour (and we had a group of six). We could always get a table on the veranda for breakfast al fresco, get a lounge chair in the shade by the pool, get a children’s video from the front desk and return it at our convenience. Nearly all of the activities on offer were included in the price: the aforementioned kayaks, bikes, and golf (including clubs), as well as croquet, Frisbee golf, nighttime s’mores on the beach, nighttime bingo, and more. There’s a supervised children’s program too, but we never used it; instead, we put our kids in the sailing school. The resort is a great place to teach your kids how to sail and play golf, as well as a great place to bond as a family.

But keep in mind: First, it’s a longer drive to get there than you might estimate, especially if you take the scenic route along two-lane country roads (it took us four hours from the Washington, D.C., Beltway), but it’s well worth it. Second, the tiny town of Irvington might be too sleepy for some, although for me it’s precisely what the doctor ordered: I have zero desire to vacation where there’s a “scene.” Third, my children were not too thrilled with the sailing school. Learning to sail is not easy, after all, and sitting in a boat waiting for the wind to blow can be boring. But my husband and I were indeed thrilled that our kids came away from our vacation having learned a useful new skill that will serve them well in life.

Says Charlie: “I had an amazing time at The Tides Inn, aside from the sailing school. I kept getting bumped in the head because when the wind wasn’t blowing, the boom would swerve around and hit me in the head. Now I know why it’s called the boom. But the marina was great because you could just take out a kayak or boat any time you wanted. And we had access to the croquet court any time we wanted, including in the morning when Mom and Dad were still in bed. There was a pool and golf and Frisbee golf too, and there was always pink lemonade and cookies at the hotel entrance and s’mores after dinner, and there were a lot of activities in the living room such as bingo, horse racing, and board games you could play whenever you wanted. At bingo my brother and I won cool prizes, like a paint set and animals you could color with fabric markers and a funny door sign that says www.goaway.com and a $10 gift certificate to the gift shop!”